07/21/2011

Code Wars coming to the University of Colorado

Update 5: We will have (Iron)Python! So you can write your entry in Python. Also, we will be there at 9:00am to help anyone who shows up early and needs help getting their system configured.

Update 4: There will be a professor team - The C.S. "Dream Team" will be Sriram, Evan, & Nikolaus.

Update 3: We have added support for additional languages. You will be able to write your entry in C#, Basic, C++, or Java. And 95% likely we will also support Python. Specifics below where I have updated this in the main part.

Update 2: Please pre-install Visual Studio 2010 Professional & ReSharper regardless of language. These both allow a 1 month trial so you can install them now and they'll be good on the day of the contest. (ReSharper is not required but it makes coding in Visual Studio a lot more productive and pleasant.)

Update 1: The code problem will be posted here when the competition starts. So if you are a student at another school and would like to try - you can download the code at the same time. I will put up a way to email me your solution and will run all emailed in ones against the top C.U. entries and post the results. Students only!

Original post:

Windward is going to sponsor a code war at the C.U. Computer Science department this August 27. That's the first Saturday after school starts which should work well as most students will have little to no homework. I hope most of the incoming freshmen participate as it's a great way for them to meet other students (I remember how alone I felt when I first started at C.U.). It's also a really fun way to start off the school year.

If you're new to C.U. and don't know anyone - email Ken Anderson and he'll get you on a team (or they may create some teams composed of all new people).

For those wonder what a Code War is, read up on the recent code war we had at Windward – Prepare to fire a Broadside Mateys. If you've never done this before - it's a total kick in the ass (ie lots of fun). Don't miss it!

This post will be updated with additional details as we work them out so for C.S. students at C.U., please come back.

August 27 – 10:00am to 6:00pm. At 6:00 we will run the submitted programs to determine the winner. (The 10:00am start time was set because we figure that's the earliest a college student can wake up on a Saturday morning.)

We will be there at 9:00am and will help people configure their systems from 9:00 - 9:50. At 9:50 we will provide pre-game info and suggestions.

We'll present the problem at 10:00 am in CSEL. You are then welcome to work anywhere and you probably want to find a quiet place for your team.

There will be free donuts for breakfast and pizza for lunch (and soda pop for both). In other words, standard food in the software start-up world.

The programming environment will be identical to our Broadside code war, but we will support more languages (see below). So for preparation get Visual Studio installed and make sure you can build and run broadside. This war will work the same way where you provide a DLL that we run against the other entries.

The problem will probably be a game A.I. program. We are leaning toward this because it is fun, because most students don't have experience on this (making it a level playing field), and because the key to success is coming up with a good approach, more than the actual code.

Get a 32x32 bitmap as the avatar for your team. If you don't provide one, we'll put up a care bear as your avatar :)

There will be trophies for the members of the winning team.

Teams must be 2 – 5 students.

It is open to all full-time C.U. computer science majors. To sign up please email Ken Anderson and Lesley McDowell. (Windward does not handle sign-up because of privacy requirements.)

Supported languages you can write your entry in. For all languages pre-install Visual Studio 2010 - it is needed for all languages. Recomend you install IronPython to avoid one step in configuring the program. We will provide a sample project with a very simplistic solution to the programming problem in each language.

Visual C++ - you must use the managed code version in Visual Studio. (C++ module written by Igor Kolesnik.)

Java - pre-install Visual Studio 2005 (you need to find someone who has a MSDN account to get this old version) and JSharp (x86, x64). For Java you will be using Microsoft J# in Visual Studio 2005. It is Java 1.2 source and compiles to .net.